|
Just finished tracking an EP for "Gills" yesterday. Unfortunately, the Mixing will have to wait about a month or so for the return of the Lightning Boy Audio Flux Bender. I shipped out the stereo equalizer last Thursday to legendary Mix Engineer, Ronan Chris Murphy, who will be reviewing it for his youtube channel, Recording Boot Camp. I'm sure at least some of his 5K viewers will be interested in this awesome EQ. I for one refuse to do any Mixes without it. What it is capable of is simply something I never want to live without. It makes things sound great and in a way no other piece of equipment is capable of.
On an unrelated note, the new upstairs section is looking great and is now open as the new lounge. Freshly repainted and cleaned up. There's plenty of seating, a new TV with a couple different gaming systems and new artwork is up. There's also a mini kitchen and a nice clean bathroom. Thanks to the recent expansion, I was able to reorganize the main studio area in a way that's more open and vibey - always a good thing.
0 Comments
The Studio is literally growing! It will soon be possible for Artists to book on-site lodging along with their recording sessions. There's a newly added apartment-style section to the studio facility which includes a good sized den, mini kitchen, and bathroom. Its a nicely finished off section, which is nearly complete. A shower is currently getting installed in the bathroom and I'll soon be getting some furnishings for the place. I'm planning to install an entertainment system with various gaming systems, bunk beds, a futon, table & chairs, and a mini kitchen. The current mini kitchen area downstairs will be converted an office for the studio.
On an unrelated note, I recently had Bryan Wray Photography by the studio to get some photos and video shot for this website. If you stop over during the next few days you'll see content changing and expanding. I'm also planning to add a new page to the site to cover the new aspect of on-site lodging. Stay tuned for exciting new things! As of the past couple months is seems mixing has become my main job and thats definitely not something I would complain about. There's been some recording sessions in there too, but the majority of the work has been mixing. I did have some mixing jobs getting backed up for a little bit because I lent out a piece of mixing equipment to Recording Magazine for review. But, I also took on more mixing jobs than recording jobs. It does seem like there is growing interest in my mixing service, which may have something to do with my analog methods. A couple mixing jobs were projects that were created in home studios and sent to me for a professional touch. Those in particular were looking for the elusive analog warmth that my studio has to offer. Its not something obtainable in a home studio environment, since the equipment required to get that sound is about as expensive as a nice house. However, its important to note that the equipment plays just a small role in the sound of a Mix. The greatest factor in any mix is the choices made by the engineer. Creative mixing decisions are the foundation of my work. One thing that probably gets overlooked by amateur recordists is mixing actually begins when the microphones are getting set up. The projects I have both recorded and mixed generally tend to sound better than the projects I only mix. This is because I actually start mixing during the recording process with creative choice and placement of microphones that will give me the mix results I'm looking for. I'll even track with EQ and compression at times if its going to give me the sound I want to work with.
In conclusion, professional mixing can certainly take home recordings to a more professional level, but the best results would obviously be from a professionally recorded and mixed project. I doubt there's many home studios with floating floors and proper acoustic treatment, let alone all the expensive microphones and preamps... and lets not forget the most important thing - the experience that comes with doing something every day of your life. Recording at home can be a fun experience, but getting professional results is a different story. I usually recommend reserving home recording for creating preproduction demos. In that application, a home studio is a cost effective solution for developing songs. Necessity is the mother of invention and today necessity has given me another option for Mixing. I wanted to be able to sum (Mix) two mono tracks together in the analog realm, but I didn't want to use the Midas Venice 240 for such a simple task. The board has a good degree of color to it and I wanted minimal coloration for this task. I'm trying to reduce the track count in a session I'm starting to Mix, so I can fit every track on the Venice. The obvious solution for most would be to combine the two tracks digitally in Pro Tools (ITB), but that's not the best sounding solution. DAW based summing is not something I enjoy the sound of, so for me its analog or nothing. But with analog comes limitations and I love limitations because that's what brings out my creativity.
I built a 2:1 passive summing buss right inside one of my patch bays. 2 inputs get summed to one output. Its simple, has no controls, and is unpowered. Traditionally, an unpowered (passive) summing buss needs to be connected to a preamp for makeup gain. Not this little guy. Since there are only 2 channels being summed, the insertion loss is negligible. The greatest thing about passive summing is its total lack of coloration. Problem solved! Now back to Mixing :) I'm still waiting for the Flux Bender to return from Recording Magazine's review. A few important Mixes are on hold till its return, but I'm keeping busy meanwhile. Yesterday (my Birthday) was technically a day off, but I modified my DBX 160X compressor. I did some technical research and purchased some Burr Brown opamps to replace the stock opamps. The goal was to improve the sound quality of the compressor, which I previously modified by adding an output transformer (recapped it as well). This was my first experience working with integrated circuits. Thankfully, it went smoothly and I wound up with a better sounding compressor. The DBX compressor sounded good to begin with, but I could hear something about it I didn't like. It had a cheap sound to it, which could be described as reduced sub bass, reduced highs and a presence bump in the upper lows (Focused around 110hz, but widely dispersed). I really hated the sound of its bass presence, so that is the main factor in deciding to modify the compressor. After replacing the stock amplifier chips with much higher quality (and modern) Burr Brown amplifiers I noticed a big sonic change for the better. That low presence is gone, but the compressor seems to also have a wider frequency response and a more accurate sound. I'm very happy with its sound now. In fact, I'm so happy with the sound I'm thinking about buying a few more of these compressors and modifying all of them!
A Boy and his Lightningby Bryan Wray
So during the months leading up to winter I met Mike Congilosi proprietor of Lightning Boy Audio. This guy is a mad man, and by that let me explain. The business is all about creating analog audio units that give unparalleled sound comparatively to digital. What's really hard to convey is how great of a job he does and you can really hear it. The ridiculous amount of detail he pours into everything is something to behold. If that's not enough for you talk to him for a few minutes. If your heads not spinning from the amount of jargon and technical knowledge no worries. He'll break it all down for you with a simile and you will be better for it. (read the rest of Bryan's blog post here: http://www.bryanwrayphotography.com/blog/2015/2/23/a-boy-his-lightning).  LA2A LoveThis is the 5th LA2A-style compressor I've built to date. All the others have been sold off to happy customers, but each time it leaves me wanting another. This one will finally stay here. The first one was an exact clone of the legendary Teletronix LA2A from the 1960's. Each preceding build added an additional new feature, while also offering a more transparent sound and lower noise floor.
This is the best sounding LA2A I've built so far and because of that, it has been justly named, "The Big Boy." New features over the traditional LA2A:
How does it sound? Well, compared to the legend it sounds equally as impressive, but for some different reasons. The original LA2A had a very warm thick sound with a lot of that energy focused on the mids. It didn't have much in the way of sub bass and had reduced highs. That truncated frequency response is part of the appeal of a vintage LA2A. How cool that may be, I have colorful compressors and some even more colorful than a vintage LA2A, but I've only come across a few as transparent sounding as this guy. LA2A's have that warm mid-range color about them, but they also have a good deal of noise. The Big Boy has a much lower level of noise than an LA2A because it has an external power supply, which removes a large portion of EMI from the equation. The last significant difference is the actual compression effect. In a Teletronix T4B optical cell, the light source is green light, which works very well with the photo resistors used because those resistors are sensitive to green light. However, myself and others have found those photo resistors are capable of creating a more musical sounding type of compression when they are exposed to blue light, as in The Big Boy. The Big Boy is a bad ass compressor. That is all. Recording at LBA Studios is an experience. The more open minded you can be, the better your experience will be. I'm a producer at heart and at soul and definitely in mind. My goal is always to make the best recordings possible. When set loose, I come up with interestingly creative and useful production ideas. Things that can sonically set you apart from any competition. I am interested in delivering my best quality always. Are you?
The new floating floor is only one of 3 major upgrades to the live room. To the right of the image you can see part of a new black column, which allows most frequencies to pass, but attenuates high frequencies. To the left, but out of the shot is a new bass trap. The 3 elements were strategically designed and placed after 4 years of intense listening, recording and planning. The results are wildly impressive. The sound of this live room is now absolutely world class. Its highly tuned, with no frequencies out of control at all. What does that mean? Significantly better recordings. A very modern, professional sound is the least that can be said to describe it. The room has a bigger sound than previously and exhibits a warm, woody tone, with airy highs. Bass is well defined in this room and does not exhibit any boominess or boxiness. This is a well tuned room meant for creating serious professional recordings.
The Gravitone Nucleus and the Electron Reactor Today I put the finishing touches on the latest guitar amp for LBA Studios, the Gravitone Nucleus/Electron Reactor. This amplifier is a 2 piece unit, consisting of the amplifier section (Gravitone Nucleus) and the power supply section (Electron Reactor). The Gravitone Nucleus is an Ultra Linear Single Ended Amp, based on the Lightning Boy Audio Gravitone 30. The power supply is its own separate unit to keep the noise floor as low as possible for the sake of better recordings. The Amplifier section offers an exceptionally elaborate EQ to make it the most versatile amp possible. Its literally capable of sounding like anything you can dream up and then some. A very loud 30 watts when running through a 4x12 speaker cabinet. Beautiful single-ended class A tone with the added beauty of Ultra-linear operation. This amp is a major departure from standard vacuum tube guitar amps.
Gravitone Nucleus
Electron Reactor
|
AuthorMike Congilosi II, Producer and founder of Lightning Boy Audio shares occasional snippets of whats going on in the studio. 
Archives
March 2025
Categories |
RSS Feed